Blame it on the Rain
by MiDnIgHtHoUr77
Summary: 'Why do we blame other people' 'I don't know Raven. I guess we can blame it on the rain.' AU Garfield meets a beautiful girl in the zoo, but he notices something strange about her. Will she let him help her?
1. Welcome to the Zoo

**Hey there. Naturally, I don't own the Teen Titans. At all. It's kind of terrible actually.**

"First time here?" He loved the zoo endlessly. He came here nearly everyday; all of the animals knew him and would come close to him sometimes despite there being a glass wall in between them. The girl standing in front of him was also endlessly adorable just by looks. She had been nervously pulling on the ends of the sleeves of her black hoodie even though it was close to eighty degrees outside. To be fair she was also wearing rather short, dark, faded jean shorts with a pair of high-top black converse. The hood was pulled up over her head so that when she turned around to face him in surprise he couldn't tell what color her hair was, only her eyes, and they were a breathtaking hue of the darkest blue he had ever seen.

"Yes." He died at her voice. Deeper than most girls and smoky, the monotone made him smile gigantically.

"Would you like a tour then?" She eyed the stranger distrustfully. Sure, he was handsome, but she didn't know him. Hold a minute, handsome wasn't the right word for the boy standing in front of her. A vibrant green shirt did little to mask the brute force of his muscles and neither did the low-riding jeans. Eyes that matched his shirt sparkled and shined with mischieviousness. His dark brown hair was completely messed up and she knew he hadn't tried to make it look that way, it was natural, and she found herself enjoying that immensely.

"Do you work here?" He smiled down at the girl in what he hoped was a trustworthy way.

"Nope." She hesitated and debated in her mind. He was taller than her and definitely stronger than her. She crossed her arms across her stomach, bringing one hand up to her face, a fingertip tapping on her lip while she thought, transferring all of her weight to one leg. He let his gaze slip down to her legs. Oh, those legs. Those were some damn fine legs, even if they were a little pale.

"Okay." He blinked in surprise at her. He hadn't expected that, and she almost hadn't said okay. The only reason she had was because she had seen his black converse, the words 'to the pain' written across the top of his toes.

"Okay." He grinned at her. "What's your favorite animal?" She only shrugged at him.

"I don't know. That's why I came to the zoo. I've never been to one before." She looked down at the ground, to study her own written on shoes. She knew he was looking at her incredulously. "I... I don't get out much."

"Well, that's okay." He recovered quickly. "We'll go to the back of the zoo and make our way back here, okay?" She looked up and smiled at him appreciatively. It was small and only for a moment, but the boy claimed it as a small victory. Together they roamed the pathways of the zoo; he showed her each and every animal. Letting her stop and look for as long as she wanted to. They both learned that she hated snakes and was afraid of frogs even though for most girls it was the exact opposite. He watched her stand in the middle of the aviary for ten minutes straight, just looking up at all the birds. They seemed to fascinate her. She looked with awe as the lions walked up to the edge of their enclosure, towards them; she tried her hardest not to back up with fright at the same time, but her strange tour guide just smiled at her again and kept talking about the lions. When they were sitting, watching the penguins swim he reached over and pulled her hood down. Startled she turned to look at him and she heard his breath catch. He was staring at her rather intensely, and she turned away, blushing, letting her violet hair fall like a curtain between the two of them.

"Please don't." She peeked a look at the boy, his voice suddenly husky and thick. She wouldn't admit it to herself but that voice was affecting her terribly.

"What?" Instinctively, she reached up and brushed her hair behind her ear. She had died it purple and cut it short on the same day. Man, had she paid for that one.

"Don't hide. Please don't. You... You're much too beautiful to hide away from the world like that." At his words she blushed even harder, but she didn't shy away from him when he moved closer to her on the bench.

"Do you have a favorite animal yet?" She returned her attention to the birds in front of her, gracefully gliding through the water she knew had to be terribly cold. They were cute, that much was true, but she didn't like them any better than any of the other animals she had seen today. At least not one animal in particular.

"I think I like the birds the best, but not these." He wasn't surprised at all by her answer. She was a strange girl, he'd give her that, but he liked her particular brand of strangeness.

"Want to hear a joke?" She turned to look at him and he had to remind himself to breathe normally for a moment. He didn't want her to know how much just looking at her without the hood affected him.

"What's black and white and goes round and round?" She tilted her head in a gesture so cute it was just stupid.

"A penguin in a revolving door." He was treated with a small giggle for his supremely corny joke. He liked that laugh. He liked making her smile too. He vowed then and there to always try to make her laugh or smile.

"Hey."

"Yes?"

"What's your name?" Startled, he realized that they'd never told each other their names. Weird. How could you spend, here he looked at his watch and choked on air to realize he had spent three hours with this girl and he didn't even know her name.

"Logan. Garfield Logan. What's yours?" The mysterious girl looked away.

"Bond. James Bond." She mumbled out. After a moment passed Garfield erupted into laughter.

"That was funny! You didn't tell me you were funny!"

"You'd be the first to think so. My name's Raven." The two sat in companiable silence for a few minutes, just watching the penguins glide through the water effortlessly.

"Well, shall we resume the tour?" He moved as if to get up, but stopped when she placed a gentle hand on his arm. Her hand was barely touching his skin, as gentle as a butterfly's kiss, but the single moment of contact stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Can we stay here for a bit? It's hot outside." He sat back down in the seat and looked at her in astonishment.

"Well, maybe if you took off this thing." He reached forward and snapped the sleeve of her hoodie, moving the material up her arm, letting him see the inside of her forearm for a second before she hurridley moved it back, but she wasn't quick enough. She turned away from him and pulls her hood back up, to hide her face from his.

"Raven."

"I have to go." She stood quickly and began to run towards the door, stopped only by his voice again.

"How old are you?" She doesn't look back at him, but she doesn't move towards the door either.

"Seventeen."

"I'll see you at school tomorrow then?" He was grasping at straws now. He knew he was, but he couldn't let this beautiful creature leave here thinking that she was completely alone in the world.

"Maybe." And then she was running through the door and then through the crowds in the zoo. She was running through the gates and then back to her house, sliding down her front door when she finally made it, the smell of whiskey already in the air.

"So you're finally home then."

He sat, watching the penguins, wondering about the girl who had just run away from him. What was she going through? What was her life like? What did she think about in the middle of dark, cold nights? He'd had a rough background, he knew what depression was, but he had never had what looked the tip of a long, inch-deep gash running down his arm. Had she done that to herself? Or.. Had somebody done that to her?

**First chapter done! This was supposed to be just a one-shot but then I started typing and got all these awesome ideas... So yea! Couple chapters long then. Hope you liked it! Don't be afriad to leave me a review! Love them things..**


	2. Vegan Pizza

**Still don't own the Teen Titans. Seriously.**

She moved her way through the crowds of a new hallway, trying to ignore the whispers. She knew they couldn't all be about her, but some days it felt like they were. Another town, another school. Maybe this one would be better than the previous three. She was senior now, though. She was almost on her own. Almost to college. She just had to hang on for one more year. Keep burying her head in books and studying her heart out so that she could get a scholarship. Lord knew her dad wouldn't pay much for any further education for his one and only child. She'd made it through the day ok, pulling out her Edgar Allen Poe whenever she really felt nervous or shy since this sky had a no hats or hoods policy. At lunch she'd sat by herself, eating an apple and reading over the syllabuses the teachers had handed out that morning. She knew people were already calling her creepy. She'd heard it whispered during lunch. She wasn't creepy. She was just different...

"So anyways, I got these really expensive highlights in my hair and stuff. Logan. Logan!"

"Yeah, that's great Terra. Why are you talking to me again?" His green eyes were scanning the faces swarming past him in the hallways. It was the end of the day and he still hadn't seen Raven anywhere. Where was she? He'd made it through another grueling session of girls twittering around him and the other members of the football team, telling them useless facts. How had he ever enjoyed this? He didn't care about highlights or lowlights whatever those were. These girls were so superficial. So fake and flimsy. He hadn't talked to his ex, Terra the entire summer and now she wouldn't leave him alone.

"Because you're my boyfriend silly." She punched his arm and smiled. He remembered when something like that would've affected him deeply. It would've sent him onto cloud nine for nearly a month, but now he just wanted her gone. All her jokes and punches so similar to him.

"I'm not your boyfriend, Terra. Not anymore."

"What are you talking about? Of course you are." Frantically she made a grab for his arms, trying to pin him against the lockers and lay a kiss on him, thinking this would make any and all of his thoughts incomprehensible like it used to.

"I'm not Terra." He saw a familiar shade of purple and started to make his way towards it. It was bent down at a locker only a few away from his own. "Now, I have to go." He ignored her feeble protests as he began to push his way to Raven. He felt like troat swimming upstream. Since when was the student population so powerful? He made little progress, and he lost sight of the distinctive purple locks.

She bent down, grateful that people seemed to ignore her if she was at her locker. Looking at her shelf she stuck one more textbook on it, where it could get aquainted with it's lockermates. She held her Poe book close to her chest, making a mental note to bring a marker board and a small mirror to put on the inside of her locker door. Shutting the door with a decisive click she turned to make her way towards the doors of the school. Thankfully she didn't have any homework to lug home with her. It was a long walk across town and the buses only took students to the country.

Sighing in frustration, he joined the crowd of students trying to go against the flow and find the girl he'd met the day before. She couldn't have gone too much farther. Just as he was resigned to not seeing her again today he was running into somebody and he heard the distinctive thud of a thick book hitting the floor. They both went sprawling on the tile floor. He shook his shaggy hair and somehow, everybody else was gone. Looking around, he noticed the thick book he'd heard and he reached for it, trying to make up to whoever he had knocked down in some small way, but when he expected the feel of worn leather he felt a smaller, colder hand beneath his own. A hand attached to an arm sheathed in a familiar looking black hoodie. Disbelieving, he dared to look up into the face of none other than Raven. Their breath mixing and mingling in the air between them, faces and lips mere inches apart.

She sucked in air. She hadn't been looking for him, but she'd hoped he'd somehow find her again. It figured that he'd be the one to walk against the flow of the crowd and knock her down, out of all the people he could've run into. Where did all the people go anyways?

"I'm so sorry, Raven. I meant to say hi, not knock you over." He slid his hand down to the spine of her book and stood, stretching out his hand to help her off the ground, not wanting to let go of her hand once she was standing she gently had to tug it out of his own. She couldn't lie. She liked the feel of his larger, warmer, calloused hand over her slender and smooth one, but she couldn't hold his hand. He probably didn't even really like her in that way.

"Here's your book back. Oh, wow. Edgar Allen Poe. Dark, creepy stuff." _I'm not creepy!_ She thought furiously as he extended the book towards her, scratching the back of his neck as he did so. A gesture at once familiar and adorable to the girl in front of him. Hastily grabbing the book back and holding it to her chest once more.

"Were you looking for me?" She was looking at the floor.

"Well.. yeah. I met a pretty girl at the zoo. I couldn't just not see her ever again." Her head snapped up at the compliment and he smiled when he saw her eyes again. Man, he was falling for those eyes quickly. Those eyes... He could imagine those eyes fluttering closed as he pressed his lips to hers.. Whoa there, Garfield. Don't be a teenage boy.

"So how are you getting home?" She smiled back up at him. She loved his smile. He was always smiling so big, like everything about the world was worth smiling about. Like she was worth smiling about. Oh, how she wanted to cover up that smile with her dark, dark lips.. Hold it, Raven. Not the time. Sooo not the time for that.

"Walking."

"Oh, could I give you a lift?" Those beautiful eyes of hers bore into his. "Or do you want to go do something? Get some ice cream? Or pizza?"

"Pizza? Didn't you eat lunch?" She blinked and began to follow him out the doors of the school and into the sun, her hood immediately snapping up over her head to shield her eyes from the light.

"I did, but I'm hungry again. Aren't you? Besides they never have much vegan stuff here for lunch and I slept it, so I didn't have time to bring my own lunch." He led her, disappointed that the hood was back, to his own green jeep. How glad he was happy that he'd upgraded from that moped. He now had room to take girls, or Raven, places. He opened the door and helped up the two feet of space between the floor of jeep and the ground.

"You're vegan?" He launched himself into the driver's seat and started the car.

"For a while now."

"And you drive a stick?" He laughed as pulled out of his parking space and entered the line of students' cars waiting to get out of the lot, easing his foot off the clutch when the line snailed itself forward.

"Impressed?" He waggled his eyebrows at her and she turned to look to her right, since the windows were already rolled down and the frame was open. She hoped he hadn't seen her smile.

"Hardly." He laughed again and maneuvered the jeep down the street, in the opposite direction of her house.

"Do you always have it open like this?" She gestured around her as the growing wind knocked her hood off her hair. He smiled with relief when he saw her violet locks whipping around her face.

"Pretty much. Unless it's winter. Snow kinda sucks." He was rewarded for his efforts with the sound of her laugh. It was a pretty thing. He didn't know how to describe it in his mind, but he liked it. He liked it immensely.

"I've never minded." They spent the next minute in comfortable silence while he pulled into a spot at a pizza place.

"Wait, if you're vegan, how can you have pizza?" She called after him as he jogged around the exterior of his jeep while she unbuckled herself. He opened the door and helped her down just as he had helped her up.

"They do have vegan pizza you know, Raven. You can leave your book in here. Wouldn't want to get food on it." She looked between him and the book, clearly conflicted. This book was precious to her. She couldn't just leave it out in the open like that, where anybody or anything to get to it.

"Gar-"

"Here." He walked around behind her with his ever present smile and opened a box in the back of his jeep with a key. Gently he took the volume from her and tucked it safely inside, locking the safebox when he was satisfied. Turning back to her he was met with a rare smile from his companion, not hidden. Not by her hand or her hand. He grabbed her hand on impulse and dragged her into his favorite place in the world.

**More to come! Have to sleep now though. SATs tomorrow man.. killer... Wish me luck!**


	3. Blame it on the Rain

**Hey there. Hope you enjoy the third chapter. Of course I don't own the Teen Titans! Why would you think I did?**

_What day did US forces invade Normandy during WWII?_

_Uh... D-Day? Wasn't it.. Operation... Overlord? Torch? Desert Storm?_

Raven was trying and failing to remember random bits of world history. This stupid worksheet wasn't being graded, but they weren't supposed to use any other sort of resources besides their brains. It was killing her.

_Next Question... What was Adolf Hitler's middle name?_

_His middle name? Are you kidding me? Who knows this stuff?!_

She only wrote 'Fernando' to try and make her teacher laugh and then threw the now completed, sort of, worksheet on the floor of her room. Her homework was done and it was only... nine o'clock. Awesome. She had time to kill. Grabbing her trusted volume of Poe's poetry, she resettled on her bed and tried to loose herself in her poetry, but after one stanza she realized she didn't know the last word she'd read. It was all Garfield's fault. Allowing herself a small smile she thought of how he'd grabbed her hand and ran into the pizza shop. He'd kept it firmly in his own hand until they were sitting at a booth waiting for the waitress to make her way over to them. He'd ordered vegan pizza and gotten her a vanilla milkshake even though she'd said she hadn't wanted anything since she didn't have any money on her. He was just as energetic and mildly annoying with his jokes as he had been at the zoo. She hadn't noticed the jokes so much in the zoo since there were animals to distract her, but now she noticed. While being completely annoying they also seemed to endear him to her. It was the strangest feeling, hearing something annoying but not wanting it to go away at the same time.

Absentmindedly, she flipped the pages of her book until she found the poem she wanted. A poem she didn't read all that much. _Annabel Lee._ One of his few poems about love instead of darkness. Nevermind that the poem was about a doomed love, it was love all the same, and many people who didn't like his other poems or stories loved this one poem. It was read at many weddings and funerals in honor of those who were loved, much to Raven's astonishment. Edgar Allen Poe didn't seem like the kind of thing that really belonged at a wedding, but a funeral.

_But we loved with a love that was more than love-_

_ I and my Annabel Lee-_

_With a love that the winged seraphs of Heaven_

_ Coveted her and me._

These were the lines the girl, all alone in a vast cruel world read over and over and clung to as she thought of a certain boy who had shown her kindness. The first kindness she'd known for awhile. She didn't read any more of the poem, just those four lines, over and over, again and again. Until her father came home that is.

He couldn't believe his bright green eyes. There was never anybody in the 24/7 gym at midnight. Nobody besides him that is, and especially not the girl he couldn't stop thinking about. Raven's feet were pounding down on the treadmill in a steady rythm in time with the sound blaring over the loudspeakers. There was a dock for iPods that the classes often used, when there was nobody here he mounted his own iPod and blared his own tunes so that he didn't have to bother with the earbud's chord. He recognized the song playing as he walked up to the girl wearing grey sneakers, short black athletic shorts and a white cut off. He came up beside her and looked at the display. She'd run three freaking miles in fifteen minutes. Impressed, he turned to look at her, assuming she'd be looking at him, but she had her eyes closed. She hadn't heard him come in, looking down her side his breath caught. Not because of the black sports bra, but because of another long, red looking mark running down her ribs. It looked fresh. As he watched, her skin broke slightly and a single beed of blood welled to the surface. Carefully, softly, he touched it, taking the single drop onto the pad of his index finger. He heard the treadmill stop and he knew that she was looking down at him, but he could only look at the blood on his hand.

"Garfield." Startled (nobody called him Garfield), his head turned up, so his eyes could meet her dark blue ones, framed not by hood or hair, but painfully open and unguarded.

"You're bleeding, Rae." Their eyes remained locked and he could see her thinking through things in her head. There was a story behind this girl, standing, panting, sweating in front of this boy, thinking, wondering, hoping she'd tell him her story.

"My name is two syllables. Ra-ven." She reached down and brushed the offending blood off of his hand.

"Why are you bleeding, Raven?" She turned from him then, looking away. She couldn't bring herself to look into those eyes. Those eyes so filled with confusion, pain and anger. He looked down, knowing that she wasn't going to answer him any time soon.

"Did you do it to yourself, Rae?" She whirled around to tell him that her name was two syllables long again, but he was already reaching up and grabbing her wrist gently, looking up at her so sadly that she couldn't speak for a moment. When she did, it came out as a whisper.

"No." His eyes remained the saddest things she had ever seen until he blinked and all of a sudden they were back to being bright and cheerful. She blinked rapidly, not believing her eyes as he gave her a face-splitting smile and squeezed her wrist just slightly before sliding his hand away and climbing onto the treadmill next to hers as a familiar song came on.

"How much longer will you be on this thing?" She smiled at him as the voices kicked in in actual lyrics.

_Simmer down, simmer down. They say we're too young now to amount to anything else, but look around. We worked too damn hard for this just to give it up now. If you don't swim, you'll drown, but don't move honey._

"Two more miles."

_You look so perfect standing there in my American Apparel underwear, and I know now, that I'm so down. Your lipstick stain is a work of art. I got your name tattoed in an arrow heart, and I know now, that I'm so down._

"I'll keep pace with you then. I can do two miles easy. I mean, look at me. I'm a beast." She smirked at him from beneath her sweat.

"Ok, Beast Boy. You just keep up with me if you can."

Ten minutes later found a gasping Garfield laying on the hard gym floor with a smiling Raven standing, leaning over him.

"Beast Boy, right? Two miles easy?" She handed his water bottle down to him and he greedily sucked the water down his throat. Throwing his arms down on either side of his head when he'd had his fill he continued to suck air down his throat as he looked at the girl standing above him, glistening with sweat.

"At a normal pace?! What was that? Like extra-hard, challenge, pro mode?" She laughed down at him, her walls down for once.

"C'mon BB." She stretched a hand out towards him, pulling him up. He didn't move.

"Why?" Now he was whining. There was that endearing yet quite annoying thing. How did the boy do that? It was stupidly adorable and incomprehensible for her.

"You need to keep moving. You'll get sore if you stay still after a work out like that. C'mon. We'll go to the guy area." He smiled as he put his hand in hers and she helped him back to his feet. He was only a few inches taller than her, but it seemed like the perfect height to him. What were all of his friends doing chasing after short girls? He didn't care that they were both sweaty, not awesome smelling. At least they were in the same boat. He moved closer to her and curved his body down, bringing their faces ever closer. Her breath caught and she blinked up at him, surprised. What was he doing? He couldn't be trying to kiss her, could he? His face inched down to hers slowly. Panicked, she backed away and ran into the treadmill, falling down and sitting on the stationary belt.

"Raven?! Are you OK?" He walked to her quickly, kneeling in front of her, hoping that she would meet his eyes. He needed to keep his head. She wasn't the king of girl he could just kiss after knowing her for two days. She wasn't Terra. He didn't even know if she liked him in that sort of way.

"Rae?" Her eyes sought out his, she had wanted that kiss so badly, but she wasn't ready for something like that just yet. She.. she just couldn't yet. She couldn't kiss a boy she'd met just yesterday.

"I told you. My name's Raven." He smiled at her, as she peered through dark, long eye lashes at him.

"I heard you, Rae." He gave her a wicked grin as she glared at him, accepting his help up.

"So why are you here at midnight?" She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye as she situated herself to do declined sit-ups.

"Nobody's here at midnight, so that's when I come. I hate running in long-sleeved t-shirts or, God forbid, my hoodie." He glanced over at her sleek form, muscles bending to her will as she heaved her body up just to let it fall over and over again. He saw the gash he'd seen yesterday at the zoo. He saw a couple bruises scattered over her arms and a couple burn marks, perfectly circular and small. She carried so many scars, he didn't even know about the ones he couldn't see. Besides, she was partly turned away from him as he pretended to do curls.

"Oh." He looked down at the floor and the two moved their bodies, flexing muscles and keeping themselves strong together in silence for a few minutes.

"I'm kind of an insomniac. I have night terrors, and when I wake up from them I come here to make myself so tired that I can go back to sleep." She studied him, upside-down, as his arms rose again and again to his chest, weights in each hand. She wondered what he'd possibly have night terrors about, but decided this wasn't the time or place to ask him. She was about to say something to him when a loud crack of thunder boomed above their heads. She squeaked and fell off the bench just slightly.

"Scared of thunder?" And then the sky had opened up and let loose rain. Heavy and thick.

"No." She grumbled as she righted herself and began another set of sit-ups. "I don't do fear." He scoffed and the two teens continued on in silence, listening to the music through the speakers and the music of the rain. The music stopped suddenly and a different tone played. It sounded like an alarm to Garfield as Raven walked calmly over to her music player.

"It's one in the morning. I'm going to practice my Krav Maga for about ten minutes and then head home." He looked at her in surprise as she floated, wraith like, through the gym and towards the punching bags. Without a pause she started laying into it with a flurry of punches and kicks.

"You know Krav Maga?" He put the bar back and sat up from his bench press. He'd just finished anyways, and he began to make his way over to the girl punching furiously.

"Yeah." He leaned on the bag next to hers and watched her small form take down imaginary opponent after imaginary opponent. She didn't let up on her fury until her phone dinged again, signaling the end of ten minutes. He liked just watching her, as creepy as that sentence sounded in his head, it was true. Just watching her lithe form twist and move through the world was fun for him. He wanted so badly to put his hands on her hard muscles, stroke all of her scars and kiss each single one and then kiss those dark, full, tempting lips...

"Garfield!"

"Whoa, what? Yeah? 'Chu need something, Rae?" She smirked and walked away from the still dazed boy to gather her things, slipping her hoodie over her head she nodded at him and opened the door.

"Wait!" He half expected her to just walk out into the thunder storm, but she stopped, she turned and she looked at him expectantly.

"Are you just going to walk home? In that?" He gestured towards her attire and then to the torrential downpour outside. There was no way in hell he was letting her go outside like that. Not when he had a perfectly good jeep to drive in. Thank God he'd checked the weather report and pulled the top on it tonight.

"Well, that's how I generally get home." He shook his head and walked to the cubby where he'd stored his bag, reaching in he pulled out his keys. She saw them and then his face, nodding with understanding.

"I'll pull it to the front. Don't want you to get too wet, now do we Rae?" He winked, he hoped charmingly, and opened the door looking at the wall of rain in front of him. Just stepping outside, he knew, would soak him. Ah, the things a boy will do for a girl. He just smiled to himself and ran to his jeep, hoping against hope that he wouldn't be too absolutely drenched. He waited until she got into the jeep with him to shake his head, shaking the water out of his hair like a wet dog.

"Aw, c'mon." But he could see the smile in her eyes as she wiped her face of the new rain water that he had sprayed on it.

"Hey, Garfield?" She had surprised him. She had surprised herself really. She didn't know if she'd actually say that out loud or if she'd just think about saying it.

"Yeah, Rae?" He backed out of the lot, wiper blades working furiously to allow the teenager to see out of the windshield.

"Why do you think people blame other people? When that other person had nothing to do with what they're being blamed for? Why do we need somebody to blame all of our troubles on? What.. Who... How do I blame someone or something? Should I blame someone? Is it just the lot of our lives to blame people? I've been blamed plenty, you know. Who should I blame, Garfield?" She was looking at him intently, staring, boring holes into his soul with those big, deep, blue eyes. They were stopped at a stoplight in the middle of nowhere with nobody around so he turned and looked at her, meeting such intense, smoldering azure with his bright, usually cheery, spring green eyes. His breath caught like it always did whenever he began to melt into those eyes of hers. They were simply incredible. He'd never seen eyes like hers. Never. They just didn't make color contacts that intense of a natural shade, and nobody he'd ever met had been born with such beautiful eyes.

"I guess, we can blame it on the rain." She was looking at him and then all of a sudden she was leaning towards him. She hadn't realized it until her head was suddenly buried into his chest. His surprisingly hard yet soft chest. Oh, he smelled good. He smelled earthy and like outside and lovely. She'd never met somebody who smelled like this. He didn't say anything. She felt the car move and then she felt it stop, and then he was moving her body and his on the bench seat of his jeep. He was leaning her entire body against his, or the best he could manage in the tight space. He wrapped his arms around her small frame and held her tight to him. Maybe if he held her tight enough, she wouldn't have to go. He wouldn't have to watch new scars appear. He could protect her. She began to trace lazy circles on the part of his chest her heead wasn't on. He thought about how good that would feel at nine o'clock on a Saturday morning, their legs wound together and her body flush with his. He wondered what it would feel like to hold this lovely girl through the night and feel her draw those circles on his bare skin before she went to sleep at night; to hold her when she was scared. To have her comfort him during his night terrors so that he didn't have to go to the gym at midnight anymore. He thought and he wondered and imagined and dreamed until she spoke.

"Hey, Gar?" He made a noise that could be interpreted as a yes. "I think I should go home now. My dad will wonder where I am if I'm not in bed at six." Lazily he opened his eyes to see sunlight. Wait, opened his eyes? Sunlight? He would've sat up if it weren't for Raven's form stretched contently across his own, their legs wound together, and oh boy was he right. That did feel absolutely amazing.

"What time is it now?" She looked down at her watch.

"Five thirty."

"Let's get you home then." She yawned and sat up, her hair in an adorably messy ponytail. At some point in the night she'd taken her hoodie off and draped it over her legs and her cutoff was precariously close to slipping off one of her shoulders. She yawned again and rubbed her eyes like little kids did. He smiled to himself and rolled his shoulders. Oh good, he'd remembered to turn the car completely off, the battery wasn't dead.

"When did I fall asleep? When did YOU fall asleep?" She stretched her arms above her head and he couldn't keep the grin off his face. That had been the best sleep he could remember getting. Even if he wasn't the most comfortable he could've been.

"Don't know. Stop here." Happily, he obliged. He pulled over to the side of the road and looked at her, just looked at her for a moment. He knew he must look like an idiot, but he was totally blissed out. He couldn't have kept the gigantic, idiotic smile off his face if he'd tried. She just flicked his nose and opened his door, ready to get out of his car without help.

"Wait, Rae." She stopped immediately and half-turned to face him. Before he could over think or stop himself, he leaned forward and brushed his lips across her cheek bone, just below her eye. It wasn't a kiss, but it almost was. He heard her breath hitch and she bolted from the vehicle, disappearing down the street. It was much harder than he had expected to turn the jeep around and walk into his empty home.

**Ta Da! Hope you liked :) comment, post, review... please? Oh! I also don't own **_**Annabel Lee**_**, that would be Edgar Allen Poe, or the song She Looks So Perfect by Five Seconds of Summer. Awesome song, by the way. Check it out :P Until later, lovelies.**


	4. Broken and Saved

**Sorry it's been so long. In my defense I did spend a week in New York away from my computer... Anyways, here's chapter four. Don't own the Teen Titans in any way shape or form.**

"Hey Rae?" They were sitting side by side on her dark bedspread. After days and weeks of badgering her about seeing her house she had finally caved. He'd been surprised to find her room about the same size as his bathroom, just big enough for a bed, a small table that held her alarm clock, and a dresser. There was one spot of free carpet space that she could stand in, but she didn't mind. The pair switched off coming here after school and going to his place after to study, watch movies, or just sit and listen to music. Garfield had caught himself spending increasing amounts of time just staring at her, trying to find a new mark on her skin. Since he'd met her, her skin had taken on a slight tan and she smiled just a little easier around him. All of his free time was spent with this strange, mysterious girl sitting next to him. Walking her to her classes, giving her rides everywhere, it was at six that he began to count the hours until he'd see her again at midnight in the gym. She always made sure he left by six and she was always home by six. Six at night and six in the morning. Twelve hours in this house that he knew nothing about. Twelve hours that always left her battered and torn.

"Garfield!"

"Huh? What? Yeah?" He shook his head, shaking his messy hair everywhere. That movement was just too familiar to Raven. She'd met this boy months ago at the zoo and here he was, still talking to her, still her friend. She'd never had a friend for this long... Well, she'd never had a friend. She couldn't begin to count the amount of times that he'd started talking and then just started staring at her, lost in thought. It was just too adorable sometimes.

"You said, 'Hey Rae?' Gar." She shook her head and closed her calculus book. It was about time for him to leave anyways. She always hated it when he had to leave, leaving her alone with her demon of a father.

"Oh yeah." He blushed an interesting shade of red and reached his arm behind his head to rub the back of his neck. She'd been surprised by this boy too many times to know that whenever he had a question it'd be best to pay attention. Sometimes she thought about asking him why he hadn't tried to kiss her again since that night in the gym, but then she remembered the days and hours he'd spent inching closer to her on their beds, so that he'd be closer to her. Maybe he was trying to kiss her again...

"So what was it, BB?" He smiled at the nickname and dropped his hand dangerously close to where hers rested on the bed. It was his favorite thing to do: grab her hand and lead her new places or accidentally brush his hand against hers, reminding her that he was there next to her.

"Well I was just wondering... you know about the fall dance coming up, right? Well, I've always gone to the thing and my friends are all taking cheerleaders, right? I was just kind of thinking maybe I didn't want to do that this year, I mean, Terra's totally thinking I'm going to ask her since we used to go out, but I don't really want to go with her. I want to go with somebody else, and she's-"

"Shut up, Gar." Gratefully he closed his mouth. He hated it when he rambled on like that, and then he heard the footsteps Raven must've heard coming from downstairs. He heard them slowly start to make their way upstairs. Immediately she was moving, grabbing his hand and shoving him into the closet across the hall from her room.

"Stay there, Gar. Please. Stay there and don't move. Don't make a sound. Don't come out for anything. Don't move until I come get you. Just remember, I'll be ok. I'm a tough girl. Just stay here." She rushed the words out in a whisper and closed the door with a soft click. He could hear his heartbeat, every one of his breaths. He didn't know what to do, but he decided that obeying her was a safe bet. Then he watched as she stood in the middle of the hallway, waiting for whoever was home to come up all the stairs and meet her. It didn't take long. Soon, the doorway to the stairs was filled with the silhouette of a giant of a man. He stepped into the light and he recognized the deep blue eyes. He had jet-black hair, it must've been the color Raven's hair used to be. He looked like he was six feet and seven inches of pure muscle. Neither of them said anything to the other. She was comletely silent as his fist connected with her face. Garfield grimaced in the closet as he heard the crunch, and then he felt his fists ball into his shirt when he saw her smack onto the ground. Her 'father' climbed on top of her, a lit cigarette dangling from his mouth. Carefully, precisely he pressed the smoldering end into her flesh, creating more of those perfectly circular scars. The boy in the closet lost all sense of time and all sense of his body. At some point he must've slid down onto his knees, closer to Raven, so he could see the tears pricking her eyes. Tears she refused to let fall. All the boy was aware of was rage growing and building inside of him. Dimly he was aware that his nails were digging into the skin of his palm, but he was all too aware of the tip of a long knife digging into the skin of the girl in front of him. Too red blood was pooling on her stomach. Why wasn't he moving to help her? Why wasn't he moving? Because she'd told him not to..

"Garfield... I'm sorry. You can go home now." She'd taken the beating silently and the sudden noise was deafening to him. She wasn't meeting his eyes. She could still feel the knife tracing shame into her skin, but she was grateful. He hadn't spoken this time. There had been no insults for him to hear from the closet.

"Raven.." His voice was broken. Everything was broken about him. They were kneeling face to face with an open door between them, as close as they'd ever been, but he'd never felt so much distance between the two of them. She stood up and he knew that she was going to go into her room and tend her wounds alone. All alone. Like she always was at the end of the day.

"No." He reached forward and grabbed her wrist gently but firmly. Surprised she accidentally met his eyes, and the first tear escaped its prison and slipped down her cheek. There was so much sadness and anger in those bright green eyes of his.

"You're coming with me." She didn't protest as he laced his fingers in between hers and dragged her downstairs. When they reached the bottom, she stopped him and poked her head out, turning it left and right, checking. When he felt her tug him forward he strode forward and opened the door, dragging her out of that accursed house.

"Garfield.. You're going to fast." His jeep was parked three blocks down and around the corner and he wanted to get to it as fast as he could, oblivious to the girl tripped over the cracks in the sidewalk beside him. Without another word he turned and scooped her up into his arms, carrying her down the sidewalk to the green jeep.

She sat silently as he wrapped bandages around her stomach. She hadn't spoken a single word, not meeting his eyes again, just sitting and letting him do anything like a good little puppet as he fixed her. Finally he was finished and he sat back in his own chair. They were in his kitchen and their knees were ghosting each other. His palms were facing the sky and she saw the dried blood near the cresent shaped marks across his hands. Carefully she pulled her chair closer to his and grabbed the damp washcloth again.

"What are you doing, Rae?" She didn't answer him; she just grabbed his hand and pulled it into her lap, carefully cleaning away the dried blood. She heard him laugh just slightly. He let her clean both of his hands and wrap them with more bandages when she was finished, but when she tried to move her hands away from his, he grabbed them. Those small, soft, cool hands that he'd wanted to grab and hold ever since he'd met her. She wasn't getting away from him anymore.

"Garfield... Don't do this." She tried to pull her hand back from his grip, but he wasn't letting that happen anytime soon.

"No, Rae. You don't do this. Can't you see? I've been here. I haven't run away from you, your past or present. I want you. I've wanted you for so damn long, Rae. You have to know that you mean so much to me. It took so much to see you go through such a thing and not do anything about it. Don't you see? I carried you here. I'm here with you. I'm going to be here with you for as long as you let me. Maybe longer. Stop trying to push me away, Rae. I love you." Her blue eyes locked onto his green eyes. He didn't wait for her to protest. He simply leaned forward, closing so much distance so easily, and put his lips to hers. Slowly, she leaned into him and moved her lips with his. She felt him grin and abruptly she was sitting on his lap, still lip locked. Breathless she disconnected their lips and rested her forehead on his. She didn't have to open her eyes to know that he had a giant goofy grin plastered to his face. Loving the feel of his strong arms encircling her waist, she instictively brought her hands up and ran them through his dark, messy hair. It was just as soft as she'd dreamt it'd be. After he let loose a soft groan, she smirked and brought her lips back down to his. Crashing them together, both hungry for more. They lost themselves in each other until Raven pulled back one more time. Garfield didn't protest, he just reached up and cradled the side of her face in his hand.

"Were you trying to ask me to the fall dance earlier, Gar?" He laughed and rubbed his rough thumb across her cheekbone.

"Trying being the key word, I'm fairly sure. How about it, Rae? Go to the fall dance with me? As my now official girlfriend?" She threw her head back and laughed, not caring what he saw or if he even liked her laugh. (For the record he absolutely loved her laugh) Not caring whatever he saw in her because he'd seen her at her worst, and he had stayed.

"Yes, Garfield Logan. I will." He smiled, wider if at all possible, and tightened the one arm he still had around her waist as she jumped at the sudden thunder. Neither had even heard the rain begin to beat its familiar rhythm against the tall windows in his kitchen.

"Are you sure you're not scared of thunder?" She laughed and leaned forward, fitting her head into his neck.

"Maybe just a little bit."

**Not the last chapter! Not yet.. We're close. Thanks for reading! Drop me a review. Again, love them things..**


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